The Chicago Board of Trade announced that 2005 was a record year for trading volume on the exchange.

The CBOT reported its highest yearly volume total in 2005, with more than 674 million contracts traded. Total annual volume rose 12.4% over the prior year, making 2005 the fourth consecutive record-breaking year, it noted.

The exchange’s average daily volume (ADV) also increased 12.9 % to 2.7 million contracts from 2.4 million contracts reported in 2004, setting a new record for the year.

The CBOT also continued to see a move toward electronic trading, with electronic volume now representing 65% of total volume for the year, up from 58% in 2004. Also, electronic ADV grew 24% to 1.7 million contracts from 1.4 million contracts reported in 2004.

“We will remember 2005 as the year we achieved unprecedented milestones in the exchange’s history and reinforced our position as a global leader in this growing industry,” said CBOT president and CEO Bernard Dan. “On top of our successful IPO launch in October, the exchange enhanced its technological presence by implementing a major upgrade to its electronic platform, increasing the availability of our electronic trading platform to 22 hours per day, and relocating our electronic trading platform host to Chicago from London.”

“We also made important progress on our global expansion strategy that included reaching a landmark agreement with the Singapore Exchange to launch a new electronic exchange in 2006, instituting a new telecom hub in Singapore, and launching new working relationships with other Pan-Asian exchanges such as the Sydney Futures Exchange and the Dubai Gold Commodities Exchange to expand our product reach,” he added.

“We experienced strong volume growth in 2005 and are extremely pleased with the performance of our electronically traded contracts. We plan to stay focused on expanding the capabilities of our electronic platform in 2006 and making our liquid markets even more accessible to our global customer base while expanding our product line across different sectors,” Dan concluded.